Park to be redeveloped
Big plans for Dalby precinct
After months of community engagement and planning, Western Downs Regional Council has released the master plans for their highly anticipated Thomas Jack Park precinct development.
The new plans include a Western Downs themed adventure playground, water play area, flying fox, multipurpose court, amenities, shaded areas, barbecues and seating.
The site will also be home to Dalby’s new cultural centre which will include a library, art gallery, visitor information centre, and a 121-seat multipurpose cinema.
Mayor Andrew Smith said the designs followed community feedback from the October 2024 draft master plan.
“The new precinct facilities and adventure playground have been thoughtfully designed to accommodate the current and future needs of our community, with sustainable design features and nature play,” Mr Smith said in a press release.
“Throughout our community engagement efforts, we heard the aspirations of our community that Dalby needs more activities for our youth, teens and young families, and council has worked very closely with our Youth Advisory Panel to inform the master plan. We heard some incredible ideas from our community, who envisioned a unique parkland experience that celebrates Dalby as an iconic gateway to the Western Downs with elements of adventure
play, sensory play, water play, and accessibility play – all seamlessly embedded in nature. Throughout the design process, significant care has been taken to carefully position pathways, structures and play elements around the existing trees, ensuring they remain a defining feature of the park.”
Mr Smith said hearing community concerns about loss of green space, the council would be adding around 1500sq m of new green space to a new location in Dalby.
“Council’s parks and recreation depot is directly adjacent to the park and will be used to store materials and equipment during the construction phase before being converted to new parkland green space, “he said.
“Preserving the park’s green space was equally important to council and our community. By committing to the relocation of the depot we’ve been able to further reduce the total building footprint to around 6.6 per cent of the park.
“This means that our community will still have around 37,800sq m of parkland green space, interactive play and recreation areas to enjoy for generation to come.”
Mr Smith said designs for Dalby’s cultural centre were about 60 per cent complete and expected to be delivered by October 2025.
“Council will continue to work through the final stages of detailed designs for the cultural centre over the coming weeks, but I can confirm that a 121-seat multipurpose cinema with retractable seating has been included in the plans,” he said in a press release.
“The next step will be the tender process for the construction of the pathways, landscaping, amenities, barbecues, seating and shade structures.
“Council has engaged leading bespoke playground design firm, Forge, to design and construct the Western Downs themed adventure playground as part of the broader park master plan created in partnership with Vee Design.
“We will continue to progress the water play detailed design and construction in the coming weeks as we know this is one particular element of the park that our community will be very excited to see brought to life.”